Saying goodbye: songs of loss

How grieving musicians across the country are keeping the memories of loved ones, especially dads, alive through their art

In April this year, Bengaluru-based composer Sanjay Sugumaran lost his father to the second wave. While most turn to art when coping with tragedy, artistes like Sugumaran have channelled their grief into their music. He chose rap to pay homage, and released the multi-lingual track, , on YouTube a month later. Like his other counterparts, 27-year-old Sugumaran hoped his song brought people together with its message of hope, with lines like ‘I will stand, no matter what / I will fight no matter what / I will love, no matter what / Survive, no matter what.’ “I wanted to celebrate my father’s life and music is the best way that I know of to do that. He had taken a loan and bought me my first keyboard and without him, I wouldn’t have been the musician that I am today,” says the rapper who collaborated with rapper Joshua Kirubagaran and singer John Mozart. Since the pandemic also robbed those in mourning the chance to bid farewell to their loved ones with a gathering of friends and family at a funeral, making music was especially healing for artistes. Last year, TV actor Siddhant Karnick saw his father, an ex- army man, fight Covid-19 and finally succumb to it. “Writing my thoughts down was the only way to make sense of the senseless,” says Nashik-based Karnick on how the lyrics of — released on Father’s Day (June 20) this year — came to be. “I shared the lyrics with my friend and poet, Swati Namjoshi, who edited what I had written, which was raw and visceral. The whole process of making the piece felt like I was grieving with my friends,” he says.